Compassion Fatigue in - Essay Example

While research suggests that providers of disaster care are at risk for compassion fatigue, there is little comprehension of the factors that place nurses at risk. A study was therefore undertaken to assess the risk for compassion fatigue in public health nurses who offered care…

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In this case, a Compassion Fatigue Self-Test (CFST) consisting of thirty questions was administered to 500 public health nurses who could have been deployed to assist hurricane victims. These nurses were identified by the Florida State Department of Health (DOH). The commonest data collection methods used in survey research is questionnaires and interviews (Nieswiadomy, 2008).
At first, the nurses were asked to go back in time and think of their hurricane experience and respond to the questionnaire based on those feelings. Secondly, they were requested to answer the same questionnaire based on their current feelings. The second responses were printed on a different colored paper in order to distinguish it from the initial.
The participants had to rate the questions on a scale of how often they experienced that feeling or event. In this case, the Likert scale was used (1=rarely, 10=very often). The range of possible scores of the thirty questions would automatically be 30 to 300. The scores obtained from each issue are then added up to give a total score of (range from 173) and the risk level of compassion
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Nurses and other caregivers often find themselves in a dilemma concerning the care they need to give to patients and their own welfare. Although health workers have a good understanding on the nature of human body its needs for rest and healthy lifestyles, they are bound by social and professional responsibilities (Joinson, 2007).

Compassion fatigue is a problem in the nursing profession. It encompasses job stress and burnout, which are lessor forms of compassion fatigue. Job stress is stress that is experienced for a short period of time, and burnout is job stress which occurs over an extended period of time.

Compassion serves as a caregiver’s core value with its essence giving nursing its expected soulfulness and healing resources. In the course of executing their duties, the emotional shifts and giving experienced by care-giving professionals could drain them focusing on their care for others and sacrifice taking care for themselves leading to compassion fatigue would.

The condition is characterised by the reduction in a person’s level of compassion, gradually, over time. The disorder commonly affects traumatised people and people who handle victims suffering from trauma (Beaton & Murphy, 1995). The

e a long history of witnessing different tragedies because of the nature of their work that is specifically to receive and care for patients some with mild illnesses while others with serious illnesses. They even see people die in front of them. These traumas make their work

Due to such situations, a nursing profession has become quite challenging activity thus requires complexity and specialization in handling emergency situations. The negative aspect of compassion fatigue nursing entails consistent absenteeism, persistent conflict and

In an argument by Walton& Alvarez (2010) practitioners tend to connect with patients at a personal basis to increase their ability to understand their requirements. The authors further point out that, this connection

It is such emotional, physical, and spiritual depletion that Eric Gentry, a traumatologist, term as compassion fatigue (Showalter).
Professionals in the intensive care units are prone to compassion fatigue. For

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